New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902. First edition. Printed at the Merrymount Press. 343; 312 pp. 2 vols. 8vo. Red cloth. Minor wear to spine ends and corners, Harmonie Club stamps on title page, half-title and another. First edition. Printed at the Merrymount Press. 343; 312 pp. 2 vols. 8vo.

Synopsis

Life at Pontesordo was in truth not very pleasant for an ardent and sensitive little boy of nine, whose remote connection with the reigning line of Pianura did not preserve him from wearing torn clothes and eating black bread and beans out of an earthen bowl on the kitchen doorstep."Go ask your mother for new clothes!" Filomena would snap at him, when his toes came through his shoes and the rents in his jacket-sleeves had spread beyond darning. "These you are wearing are my Giannozzo's, as you well know, and every rag on your back is mine, if there were any law for poor folk, for not a copper of pay for your keep or a stitch of clothing for your body have we had these two years come Assumption--. What's that? You can't ask your mother, you say, because she never comes here? True enough--fine ladies let their brats live in cow-dung, but they must have Indian carpets under their own feet. Well, ask the abate, then--he has lace ruffles to his coat and a naked woman painted on his snuff box--What? He only holds his hands up when you ask? Well, then, go ask your friends on the chapel-walls--maybe they'll give you a pair of shoes--though Saint Francis, for that matter, was the father of the discalced, and would doubtless tell you to go without!" And she would add with a coarse laugh: "Don't you know that the discalced are shod with gold?"It was after such a scene that the beggar-noble, as they called him at Pontesordo, would steal away to the chapel and, seating himself on an upturned basket or a heap of pumpkins, gaze long into the face of the mournful saint.

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Details

Bookseller: The Old Mill Bookshop (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 52078
Title: The Valley of Decision
Author: Wharton, Edith
Format/Binding: 343; 312 pp. 2 vols. 8vo
Book Condition: Used - Red cloth. Minor wear to spine ends and corners, Harmonie Club stamps on title page, half-title and another
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First edition. Printed at the Merrymount Press
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 1902
Keywords: American | Women | Edith Wharton

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Cloth: "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
Title Page: A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...